


Fairy in the Snow

by BeesandBaobabs



Category: Auideas - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Auideas, Fairy AU, Original Character(s), pixomile - Freeform, well i mean they're based off of real people so ?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 20:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6823084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeesandBaobabs/pseuds/BeesandBaobabs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Em is a tired student who is just trying to get through their last year of high school, but when Em comes home to find an injured fairy lying in the snow outside of their window, Em can't help but have a bit of pity and try to nurse the fairy back to health.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairy in the Snow

Out of all the things to happen today, you were not expecting to find a fairy on your windowsill. You had come home from school – brains practically melting out of your ears – and exhausted from having to socialize all day. All you had wanted to do was to throw your book bag on the floor, sit down at your desk with a snack, and then catch up on the latest episodes of Bob’s Burgers. 

But no. The universe had thrown you a curveball and while your computer was struggling to boot itself up, you had looked out your window to see the tiniest speck of bright red against the snow piled on your windowsill. At first, you had assumed that it was a feather from a cardinal – they did like to come to your yard for the birdseed that you scattered – or maybe a weirdly bright leaf that had gotten trapped against the glass. Intrigued, you had gotten up from your desk and gone over to the window to satisfy your curiosity, then lo-and-behold, you found yourself looking at an honest to goodness fairy lying motionless against the window's glass. 

First thought was “well that’s certainly something” which was quickly followed by “woah. wait. Hold up that’s a real fairy right there” because it looked exactly like the tiny humans that you had seen in picture books from – what feels like – a thousand years ago when you were still into Peter Pan; except this isn’t a little silly with a blue aura, but a human that’s just barely the size of a BRATZ doll. 

The fairy is seriously small, and you realize that the only reason why you didn’t see her – them? It? – was because her skin was quite literally the same color of the snow, and her clothing looked like it was the same color of the dead leaves littering your lawn. The clothing didn’t look anything like the books; instead of being leaves, you would guess that it was made out of old rags, or maybe trash. Her wings are just a few shades darker than the clothing that she’s wearing, and they’re pulled tight against her back – more like moth wings than fairy wings. The only thing that set her apart from the bleak, white snow is the mess of bright red hair that’s spilling out across the snow. 

Opening up your window, you try to scoop the fairy – wow that is so weird to actually acknowledge – up with your bare hands, but immediately flinch back. The snow around the fairy is cold, but the fairy feels like she’s on fire. Quickly, you grab an old shirt off of your floor and fold it a few times, then use that to scoop up the fairy, taking a lot of the snow around her too. 

Again, you’re not sure why you’re surprised but the fairy is so small and your brain cannot stop ogling that. Standing in your bedroom with a fairy wrapped in one of your old shirts – it’s the Schrödinger's cat shirt that you had thought was hilarious back in 2012 – you’re realizing that this whole situation should not be happening. Your brain has stopped tripping out and has finally skipped over the excitement of “Oh look! A fairy in the snow! I should bring it inside!” is quickly progressing into “Hold up, is this a dream or something?” because in the real world, high school students don’t find fairies waiting for them on their windowsills. 

Using one hand to hold the fairy, you pinch your arm. Yep. You’re awake. This is really happening right now and – as heartless as it sounds – you have half the mind to put the fairy back outside and forget all about her because you’re tired and not in the mood to deal with this. You’ve got midterms coming up, as well as the winter theater production of “Our Town” – which is turning out to be more like “My Town” since you’re the only techie who cares about making the show run right – and then you’ve got your parents riding your ass about looking at colleges…Maybe it would be better to just pretend that you never saw the fairy and just get on with your life. Do you really need one more thing to bother you right now? 

No! Hang on that’s a terrible idea. You are quite literally living a fanfiction right now. Like this is some prime material that you would write about on your blog and specifically aim it at writers who love this sort of magical-y universe-y fairies-really-do-exist fiction genre. Also, if this is really a fairy – you’re struggling to call it anything else right now, as impossible as fairies are – then aren’t you responsible for its wellbeing? 

You remember that one time in middle school where your dad found a baby bird in your backyard, and you two had nursed it back to health in a box that you two kept in the garage. You could do that. Definitely. It was going to require you to get a little creative, but you could definitely make something work with the supplies from your bedroom. 

First things first though: you need to get this fairy warm and safe. 

You dust as much snow off the fairy as you can, then you place her on one of your softest sweatshirts that’s near enough to the space heater to be warming, but not too toasty. Then, for the next hour and a half – time that you could have used to study, but you try to not think about it – you go through your room, scouring the darkest corners of your closet for supplies to make a tiny fairy house. 

You find an old shoe box from a pair of Converse that you owned – again, back in 2012 when it was hip to wear Converse and science nerd shirts – and after lining it with an old theater shirt, you’ve got yourself one genuine fairy bed. A water bottle cut in half becomes a mini-bird-bath-type-washing-station; some leftover Cheerios that you found in a baggie are now a tiny fairy meal for when she wakes up; and then fitting the whole ensemble into an old moving box, you’ve got yourself a genuine, state of the art fairy holder. There’s the issue of if she can climb or fly out of the box an escape, but hopefully she’ll be too tired to try anything that daring for a while. 

Turning off the space heater, you carefully pick up the fairy and move to put her on her new, makeshift bed. She’s still feverishly warm, much warmer than the baby bird had been, but maybe that’s a part of being a fairy. Her wings are gossamer thin, and just barely whisper against your calloused fingers as you set her down as gently as you can. You remember reading somewhere that butterflies and months could lose the ability to fly if a human touched their wings, and you pray that you haven’t made a terrible decision by trying to help her. 

You shift the box over to the side of your bed so that it’s out of view of the door – just in case somebody tries to peek into your room – but close enough that you can keep an eye on the little fairy. Your clock is inching closer to 1am, and you feel immensely weary realizing that you’ll have to get up at 6am so that you can make up for tonight’s lost studying time. 

You’ll deal with that in the morning though, with a lot of strong tea and spite to motivate you. For now, you’ve got a sleeping fairy in a box next to your bed, a physics test at 8am, and enough anxiety to cripple a horse; it’s due time to sleep. 

With one last look at the sleeping fairy – so small and helpless, it makes your heart ache -- you switch off your bedroom light and collapse into bed. You’re asleep before you even hit the pillow. That night, your dreams are about unicorns, mermaids, and all sort of creatures that you stopped believing about years ago, and for the first time in a very long time, you feel genuinely at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post that I saw the auideas admins post about. I hope I got the characterization right, or at least close? At the end of the day, this was a really fun writing challenge to get me out of my rut. I probably won't continue with the story, but I will definitely be breaking out another story before the May 13th deadline ;) 
> 
> original post: <http://auideas.tumblr.com/post/144105218592/snow-storm-debut-au#tumblr_notes>
> 
> EDIT: ooooh just now realizing I never had admin m (Em) directly say that they're the narrator. Whoops? Well hopefully you guys know who this is about.


End file.
